‘Missing’ Ballito cyclists rescued

A Ballito man and two nine-year-old boys were mistakenly believed to be lost on the cycling trails outside town on Saturday, resulting in a full scale community search and rescue operation.

Farmers and cyclists came out in force, searching until 7.35pm when they found the ‘missing’ cyclists, only to discover that they had never been lost in the first place.

“My son, Louis, his friend, Tyron Keylock and I left at 5.15pm on Saturday to try out the 27 km maroon route at Holla Trails,” said Henry Souchon, who lives on one of the farms near the popular trails.

But the cyclists soon realised that the route took them in a completely different direction from what they expected and with darkness setting in, Souchon decided that he did not want to carry on with the two little boys.

“We went to the top of the hill for signal, to call my wife, Belinda,” said Souchon.

He asked her to pick them up at the 18km mark on the the maroon trail, and then the phone battery promptly died. Belinda had no idea where to find the 18km mark nor how to get there.

Panic set in and she started phoning local farmers to ask for help.

Meanwhile, the boys were getting extremely concerned, though Tyron was confident they would be home soon.

“I told them that there was no way their mothers would let them spend the night out there and so we started chatting about all sorts of things, while waiting to be fetched,” he said.

They had no idea that by now word had got out that the boys and the father were missing. The news spread like wildfire.

“My wife got hold of Andrew Mackenzie, (a fellow cyclist), who was in Cape Town for the Cape Epic, but luckily knew exactly how to get to the 18km mark and gave Belinda directions.”

At about 7:35pm, while the three ‘missing’ cyclists were lying in the grass chatting about their favourite pudding, bright lights appeared in the night, as 4x4s and motorbikes descended upon them from all directions as the rescuers arrived.

“Although it was so embarrassing to have the whole neighbourhood out looking for us, it was heartwarming to see the overwhelming support from the community and I would like to thank everyone who got involved,” said Souchon.